A Little Bit Of Knowledge Can Be Dangerous
Couple Charged For Citizen's Arrest
In my past writing efforts I have addressed the issue of how the law has been removed from the reach of the ordinary man. The Constitution provides that we may have legal representation, but doesn't require that we use it. However, the federal and state rules of courtroom procedure, the complexity of statutes, regulations and ordinances, and the tight-knit brotherhood (aka "good old boys network") of the bar association has locked up the court so that only a fool enters the courtroom under a pro se measure. Adding insult to injury, it wasn't until SCOTUS revised some court procedures that judges were required to give wider latitude to non-lawyers and pro se litigants... and courts were in the habit of beating up on pro se litigants before that revision. Miranda and Gideon were milestone cases that pushed the law back toward the reach of the average citizen, but recent SCOTUS decisions have undermined the spirit and the letter of the law, with one SCOTUS justice making the argument that the Miranda warning was practically obsolete because of the pervasive airing of cop shows on television... thus the erosion of the Miranda warning began and the push of unethical prosecutors and law enforcement agents to circumvent Miranda whenever and where ever possible.
However, the article below demonstrates the principle of the law being out of the reach of most people and the principle that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In this case a group of people took an ordinary case of a lost soul looking for a friend's house to an extreme, placing him under "citizen's arrest" for a mere matter of what they considered to be trespassing, but was not legally a crime at all. But the vigilante spirit took over and they slapped hand cuffs on an innocent man... and the law fought back by biting them in the arse. The problem was that they did not understand that a police officer is protected by principles of sovereignty and limited immunity while in pursuit of their duties. Private citizens, however, do not have the protection of sovereignty or limited immunity under authority.
The odds are not only will they suffer some criminal law consequences, but if they have any property of value, they will also suffer civil law consequences that will not be covered by their homeowner's insurance policy. That's because they only understood a part of the law that allows a citizen to make an arrest... and not the part that requires them to be 100% on the money while doing so.
Life sucks if you don't understand the rules real well. The moral of this story is to call the cops first and let them do the arrest... unless you are absolutely sure that a criminal act has occurred.
In my past writing efforts I have addressed the issue of how the law has been removed from the reach of the ordinary man. The Constitution provides that we may have legal representation, but doesn't require that we use it. However, the federal and state rules of courtroom procedure, the complexity of statutes, regulations and ordinances, and the tight-knit brotherhood (aka "good old boys network") of the bar association has locked up the court so that only a fool enters the courtroom under a pro se measure. Adding insult to injury, it wasn't until SCOTUS revised some court procedures that judges were required to give wider latitude to non-lawyers and pro se litigants... and courts were in the habit of beating up on pro se litigants before that revision. Miranda and Gideon were milestone cases that pushed the law back toward the reach of the average citizen, but recent SCOTUS decisions have undermined the spirit and the letter of the law, with one SCOTUS justice making the argument that the Miranda warning was practically obsolete because of the pervasive airing of cop shows on television... thus the erosion of the Miranda warning began and the push of unethical prosecutors and law enforcement agents to circumvent Miranda whenever and where ever possible.
However, the article below demonstrates the principle of the law being out of the reach of most people and the principle that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In this case a group of people took an ordinary case of a lost soul looking for a friend's house to an extreme, placing him under "citizen's arrest" for a mere matter of what they considered to be trespassing, but was not legally a crime at all. But the vigilante spirit took over and they slapped hand cuffs on an innocent man... and the law fought back by biting them in the arse. The problem was that they did not understand that a police officer is protected by principles of sovereignty and limited immunity while in pursuit of their duties. Private citizens, however, do not have the protection of sovereignty or limited immunity under authority.
The odds are not only will they suffer some criminal law consequences, but if they have any property of value, they will also suffer civil law consequences that will not be covered by their homeowner's insurance policy. That's because they only understood a part of the law that allows a citizen to make an arrest... and not the part that requires them to be 100% on the money while doing so.
Life sucks if you don't understand the rules real well. The moral of this story is to call the cops first and let them do the arrest... unless you are absolutely sure that a criminal act has occurred.
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. -- Two people who helped place a man under citizen's arrest when he strayed onto the wrong property found themselves in jail.
Michigan City police received a call Sunday night from a man who said he had been detained by four people while he was trying to find a friend's house. The man told police he was grabbed by two men and told to quit resisting, as he was under arrest. The man said he complied because he thought they were police officers.
Two women then came out of a nearby house and handcuffed the man, although he tried to explain he was just visiting a friend and had taken the wrong staircase, he told police.
The group took the handcuffed man to his friend's house, and released him when the friend vouched for him.
After receiving the report, police contacted Joel and Claudette St. Germain, who acknowledged handcuffing the man. Joel St. Germain told police he has had problems in the past with people stealing things from his lawn. He told officers he didn't know it was wrong to handcuff a man he didn't recognize in his yard.
The St. Germains, who were being held Monday at the LaPorte County Jail, were arrested and charged with criminal confinement, a Class D felony punishable by up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine, and battery, a Class A misdemeanor which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a fine up to $5,000.
The other two people accused of confining the man were not identified.
posted by Jim Downey at 3:34 PM
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